Today, Thursday, October 1st, 2026, Shabazz Palaces is sharing “Tongue In Chic,” a new wave R&B jam with humorous reflections on his dating life. It’s also another highlight from It’s a Style Sport, out later this month worldwide from Sub Pop. Listen here.
 
The Stranger reviewed Shabazz Palaces’ live performance of “Tongue In Chic” at their Genius Awards event last month, and said of the track: “The standout for me was the closer—a new song called “Tongue In Chic”…In the song, Butler raps coolly, ‘New girlfriend, that’s what I need,’ and goes on to regale us with his experience dating a woman who claimed to be a chef but has an empty fridge and no utensils. This song was fucking funny and cool.” 
 
“Tongue In Chic” features Shabazz Palaces’ Ishmael Butler (Vocals, Drum Machine, Keyboards), along with Gerald “Tugboat” Turner (Bass), Thaddeus “Thaddillac” Turner (Guitar, Keyboards), and album co-producer Erik Blood (Guitar).
 
Later this evening, Shabazz Palaces will host an early album listening party for Southern California fans at Los Angeles, CA’s Gold Line Bar from 6-8 PM PT. The event is open to the public, free for entry, and 21+.  Entry is first-come, first-served.

Shabazz Palaces’ It’s a Style Sport is available now to preorder on CD/LP/Digital from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com in North America, Mega Mart Europe in the UK and EU, and your local record store will receive the limited Loser edition on Metallic Silver (North America) and Sparkle Starlight (EU/UK) vinyl (while supplies last).
 
It’s a Style Sport is the eighth Shabazz Palaces studio album and the first since the release of sibling mini-albums 2023’s Robed In Rareness and 2024’s Exotic Birds Of Prey.
 
It’s a bold, forthright, heavy-hitting album. Throughout, Butler compiles what he’s learned from his storied, dense career into a playful, shimmering portal, again proving himself an artist of chameleonic ambition, fuelled by curiosity, courage, and a limitless imagination. 
 
It’s a Style Sport also features guest appearances from Marquette Miller, Darrius Willrich, Evan Flory-Barnes, Kassa Overall, Carlos Overall, and the aforementioned Turner brothers. The album was produced by Shabazz Palaces and Blood, recorded at Circular Ruin Studios in Brooklyn (NY), Lake View Studios and Hall of Justice in Seattle (WA), and Parkman Labs in Los Angeles (CA).  It was mixed by Blood at Circular Ruin, and mastered by Warren Defever at Third Man Mastering in Detroit (MI).
 
Pitchfork included It’s a Style Sport in its “34 Most Anticipated Albums for Fall 2024,” and said, “Lead single ‘Ahh World (I Won The Alpha Bet)’ sets lucid social commentary to ominous beats that sound like the very dystopian future he rallies listeners to prevent; ‘Jheri Curl Jump,’ meanwhile, is a loquacious love story murmured over jittery electro-funk.”
 
More on It’s a Style Sport by Tasha Riley here.

Shabazz Palaces
It’s a Style Sport
 
Tracklisting:
1. Ahh World (I Won The Alpha Bet)
2. Field Notes
3. Show Me Missouri In Mink
4. Jheri Curl Jump
5. Deadstock Dude
6. Tongue In Chic
7. Heliocentric Immortality Manifesto H.I.M.
8. Olivia According To Touch
9. Money Can’t Save Your Mind
10. From One Future To Another